Congress
Todd Blanche doesn’t rule out using new settlement account to pay out Jan. 6 rioters
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is not ruling out making payments to those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of the Justice Department’s new, $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
“Anybody can apply,” Blanche said during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning in response to a question from Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).
“The commissioners will set rules I’m sure,” Blanche continued. “That’s not for me to set. That’s for the commissioners, and whether an individual, an Oathkeeper as you just mentioned, applies for compensation … anybody in this country can apply.”
These comments could confirm critics’ worst fears about the rationale behind the account, which the Justice Department unveiled Monday to grant funds to individuals deemed targets of “weaponization and lawfare.”
It came about as the result of a settlement with President Donald Trump, where he agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax information in exchange for the establishment of such a fund.
Democrats quickly accused the administration of creating a slush fund intended to reward the president’s allies, including potentially those participated in the Jan. 6 riots.
“That is pure theft of public funds, and rewarding individuals who committed crimes is obscene,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing the DOJ’s budget. “Every American can see through this illegal, corrupt, self-dealing scheme.”
While Blanche was invited to testify on his budget request Tuesday, he quickly was in the position of having to defend and explain the new fund to members of both parties.
He faced tough questions from Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who wanted to know whether payouts would be publicly reported. She appeared skeptical about oversight of the fund, challenging Blanche’s suggestion that a commission the Justice Department plans to set up would be impartial.
Blanche said the fund, though “unusual,” was “not unprecedented.” He emphasized there would be “a process that you all will get information, and there’s a FOIA process. So I very much anticipate that the claims that are awarded — the basis and the amount — will for sure be made public along the way.”
The written terms of the settlement agreement state that these reports would, in fact, be “confidential,” but Blanche further sought to reassure lawmakers by explaining that the weaponization fund would accept claims beyond those stemming from alleged abuses under the Biden administration.
“There’s no limitation on the claims,” he said.
Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.
McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.
The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”
Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.
The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.
Congress
House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements
The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.
In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.
Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”
Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”
Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”
The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.
The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”
House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.
Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.
It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.
Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.
The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.
El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.
“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”
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